As is known to those of skill in the art, Motor Control Centers (MCC) can include cabinets or enclosures that hold multiple, typically modular, bucket assemblies or units of various sizes. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,441, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference as if recited in full herein. Eaton Corporation has recently introduced a MCC product line with compact bucket assemblies that conveniently plug into a slot or space in an MCC cabinet. The product is sold under the product name, Freedom 2100 MCC. See also, U.S. Patent Application Publication Serial Number US2013/0077210, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference as if recited in full herein.
The bucket assemblies or units can include rotary handles that are disposed on the front door. The rotary handle can be configured to convert the rotary motion of the rotary handle to the linear or translational motion of a circuit breaker linear action lever. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,194,983 and 7,186,933, the contents of which are incorporated by reference as if recited in full herein. The rotary handle is typically mounted parallel with the plane of the faceplate of the molded case circuit breaker, but spaced outwardly from it by the depth of the handle mechanism. Usually a series of linkages are utilized to interconnect the rotary motion of the rotary handle to the linear motion of the circuit breaker handle or lever.
Workplace guidelines, such as regulatory guidelines including National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards 70 National Electrical Code, and No. 70 E Personal and Other Protective Equipment, require a “Lockout and Tagout” procedure. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a prior art operator disconnect handle accessed by a technician wearing a glove pursuant to personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements in applying a Lockout/Tagout padlock.
Despite the above, there remains a need for alternate operator disconnect handle designs that can facilitate human interfaces with the handles to comply with safety regulations and/or provide an easier to use configuration.